


we drove miles of country

by ohwhatagloomyshow



Category: Nancy Drew (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Game 33: Midnight in Salem, Gen, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:34:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29170407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohwhatagloomyshow/pseuds/ohwhatagloomyshow
Summary: a casual fic based on the original plot summary and character bios released when Midnight in Salem was announced. nan and deirdre go on a road trip to Salem and get settled into the mystery of the Hathorne House. fair warning: may or may not continue with it! we'll see where it goes :)
Relationships: Nancy Drew & Deirdre Shannon
Kudos: 1





	we drove miles of country

**Author's Note:**

> _Ain’t love a trap  
>  Aren’t you a mess  
> You wear it well  
> I need you stressed  
> You’re scared to die  
> Alone, I know  
> You could be mine  
> You could be_  
> water, jamaican queens

She spun the phone between her hands, bottom lip between her teeth, before sighing and pulling the voicemail up again.

“Nan, you’ve got to give it a break!” Ned groaned, trying to swipe the phone from her grip. She held tightly and put the speaker to her ear.

_Nancy, it’s me. Deirdre._

“She just sounds so… _sincere_. She sounds scared, Ned.”

“And? She just about led you to your death a few years ago!”

She rolled her eyes as Ned stood, stretched, eased his way back into the pool. She paused the voicemail to watch him slip below the water, begin a lap. Simple pleasures.

_Someone really important to me is in danger._

_I know the feeling_ , she sighed as Ned resurfaced.

_Nancy, if you don’t help me, I don’t think she’s going to make it –_

She nearly jumped from her skin when the phone rang, interrupting the voicemail. That didn’t matter, she had it memorized, finished it in her head as she calmed her shaking hands, answered the call without bothering to check the ID.

_– out of this alive._

“Finally!” She sounded like she was hurrying, her voice overloud as she pulled in breath.

“Deirdre?”

“ _Duh_. Listen – did you get my voicemail?”

_I haven’t stopped listening to it this whole vacation._

“I did.” Voices suddenly blared through the speaker. “Where are you?”

“Airport. JFK. Listen, where are you right now, Drew? George wouldn’t tell me but Bess let it slip you’re here too – New York. Are you in the city? I need to pick you up.”

“Wait, Deirdre, slow down.” She sat up. “Start over.”

“You’ll help me, won’t you? You’ll help me and Mei?”

She answered without hesitation, avoiding Ned’s curious gaze from the poolside.

“Good. Now where in the world are you, Nancy Drew?”

//

After Iceland, Nancy kept her promise – less cases, more quality time. She arrived home to Ned’s arms, and then her father’s, and she stayed put with Hannah, Bess, George, and the people she loved. The cousins were knocking out basic classes at the local community college while Nancy honed her lockpicking skills, elaborated her codebreaking lexicon, and fine-tuned her frosting technique with Hannah. She read nonfiction with her dad and sat through football games with Ned. It was slow, and strange, but it was good, too.

“We’re going on vacation this fall, the three of us,” Carson announced an evening in August, the summer having passed by in lazy days. His caseload had picked up with the summer heat, and each time he tried to plan something with his daughter – who had only grown closer to Ned – a complication occurred. Now, he put his foot down.

Nancy considered. “Not someplace too cold, I hope,” she smiled before adding, “remember when I was a kid, and that goal we made? The presidential homes?”

Carson returned her grinned, and plans were made for mid-October, starting with the Roosevelt home in Hyde Park. They booked hotels and flights and ironed out the timing with Ned’s fall break. It came together beautifully.

The night before the flight, Nancy received Deirdre’s message. They hadn’t spoken since Colorado, and Nancy hadn’t missed her old rival, but the tone of the voicemail startled her. Deirdre’s voice slithered its way into her brain, like the worst sort of pop music earworm; she couldn’t stop hearing it through the drives, the flights, the tours. Ned nearly deleted it for her the third time she brought it up, but he relented when she promised she would do it. She did not specify when.

So Deirdre’s live, out-of-breath voice on the other end of the phone was like a godsend, cold lemonade on a hot day. A mystery to quench the thirst she had long been ignoring. 

How could she say no?

Deirdre was on her way back to school after her own fall break, but flights to Boston were down and were not expected to resume for hours. And she needed to get back as soon as she could. 

“Deirdre, can’t you just tell me what’s going on?” Nancy asked, wrapping a towel around herself and grabbing her key card, gesturing to Ned that she’d be _right back_.

“Listen, give me two hours to get to you, and then it’s a four hour drive to Salem. I’ll tell you all about it then – two hours won’t kill you. We’ll get up there, we’ll sort everything out, I’ll drive you back to whatever gross thing you’re doing with Ned in Nowheresville. Or I’ll cover your flight ticket back – whatever. Just know one thing.”

“What?”

“I’m driving, and I’m picking the music, okay?”

For a moment, she let the moment wash over her – a new case, a few days away from the near-stifling company of her dad and boyfriend, fresh New England air. She grinned. “Okay, Deirdre.” 

//

It took the entire two hour period for Nancy to convince her father and Ned that going to Massachusetts was a good idea. The men had luxuriated in the relief of not needing to worry about their favorite detective, and were loath to part with it. But the steel glint in her eyes and set of her jaw convinced them there would be no persuading her. They bickered as she repacked her suitcase with the efficiency of a wanderer. 

And then Deirdre pulled up to the hotel in a rented car, and Nancy kissed her boyfriend and hugged her father goodbye. The suitcase was tossed easily to the trunk, and music blasted as she opened the door. The voice was higher pitched, the style unlike what she had predicted Deirdre usually listened to, sparse and electronic.

_Ain’t love a trap? / Aren’t you a mess? / You wear it well_

Nancy settled herself into the passenger seat, catching Deirdre wiping her face before immediately turning the volume down.

 _You’re scared to die alone / I know_ , the speakers whispered.

“You okay, Deirdre?” she asked, the edge of her lips quirked.

“Would I be calling you if I was?” she shot back in reply, rapidly putting the car in Drive and maneuvering out of the parking lot and onto the street with easy skill.

“Fair point.” Nancy readjusted, struggling to pick up the rest of the music. “I’m sorry. I’m not judging." A short pause. "You said you were picking music, right? You can turn it back up.”

Deirdre acquiesced by returning the song to its original volume. Within minutes, they left the city limits.

_You could be mine / you could be_

**Author's Note:**

> so, i've only played half of midnight in salem. but crucially, i've watched arglefumph's playthrough and his everything wrong video, which includes (#202) how out of character it is that nan and deirdre sit in deirdre's car and listen to music for a few minutes. he's correct, but also _insert "and i took that personally" meme_.
> 
> for whatever reason when the game was announced i just thought about nan and deirdre going on a long road trip and having a bonding experience. i should've written that plot-speculative fic in 2014, but it's 2021 so i'm doing it now. i started assuming this would turn into nancy/deirdre, but as i keep considering where i want it to go, i don't think it'll quite go that way, and i'm so sorry about that. (unless you don't want nancy/deirdre - in that case, you're welcome) either way, it will be wlw. 
> 
> each chapter will be titled for a song deirdre plays.


End file.
